The Social Life of Artistic Property

What happens when twelve artists gather to discuss the relationship between art and property? In twenty meetings over two and a half years, the core group of Pablo Helguera, Michael Mandiberg, William Powhida, Amy Whitaker and Caroline Woolard birthed this provocative volume. The group produced three pieces of writing about experiments in group living and three proposals for the future of artistic property, including initiatives that reimagine studio space, living space, and artwork. The group is grateful for contributions to this conversation by many others, whose contributions are published elsewhere. Bound together, here is a record of the group's research and an invitation to consider the forgotten histories and plausible futures of the social life of artistic property.

Chockfull of inspiring examples and cautionary tales, of opportunities taken and opportunities missed, The Social Life of Artistic Property offers a frank exploration of the relationships (real and imagined) amongst real estate markets, art markets, and the artists who work within and against them. Mixing essay and interview, the authors are themselves personally invested in questions that have no easy answers, but whose pursuits are essential to sustaining a robust cultural sector for the future.

—Shannon Jackson, University of California, Berkeley

"These texts are about living together, why people do it and what it does to them. They are produced by artists, and reflect the concerns of creative people. They talk about intense social experiences, about transformative interpersonal exchange."